Did more today than expected. Especially since I slept till 10, skipped breakfast, had a Kind bar for lunch and dictated two Thailand letters before getting outside.

It took about an hour to plant the three paw paw saplings in their separate 16-inch containers. Used all of one and 2/3 of the other bag of potting soil (already in each container was pearlite and vermiculite). The space in front of the shed is a compromise - the info which came with the saplings says they like shade until they get tall enough to make a canopy, but there is nowhere on my property which has shade all day. The shed is shaded in the morning, full sun late afternoon. Not sure if they will survive long term, because they really need to be able to spread their root systems.

Back inside, did more letters. Nov-Dec 1975 I was getting ready for vacation, and it looked like my job was about to disappear out from under me before my end of PC service. At vacation time where it stood was by the following October (76) my department would no longer exist. My PC stint was due to last until June '77, I think. I had forgotten that I had asked to switch to TEFL (teaching English) - after all, with my journalism experience I was more qualified than many of the people in my group who were doing that. That was shot down by the country director who said they were trying to down-size that program.

Letters from vacation told of a trip south, much of which I do not remember. I don't remember Koh Samui, or Nancy's birthday in Phuket. I do remember going to Kuala Lumpur to the Malaysia PCV board meeting, but not the stop-off in Penang before it. And there is a line about an experimental rubber plantation on Phuket which blew me away, because I did not remember, half a year later when I was sent there for work, that I'd ever seen it before.

Dragon speech-to-text makes some funny typos. The winner today was transcribing "Thai-Lao border" as "Thai bowel border". In other Dragon news, I unplugged the uncomfortable USB headset and replaced it with solid microphone and stand, also USB, which turned out to be more accurate than any of the input devices I have tried so far.

4:30, drove to MV and met Janice for coffee. Huge line of people, my drink took 15 minutes, which I spent at an outdoor table. Nice sunny day.

After Janice joined me, we watched a baby bird which had fallen from its nest - a pipe near the roof - being fed by its mama. We had to warn away several people, especially one obnoxious child who wanted to pick it up, and was not listening to her mother, who finally physically pulled the kid away.

Home, probably should have seen the show at The Pear. Maybe tomorrow. Or next week.

Dinner was bratwurst mac & cheese. The rest of my mocha for dessert.

More letters.

Plans for tomorrow:More letters (the first two are Malaysian aerogrammes)Dump compost bin #1's contents into the green waste bin. If there's room, cut back the big salvia plant and put the clippings in the bin.Take out the garbageMaybe drive to MV for the play, and bring the camera to snap photos of the egret nests